Forza Horizon studio hires developers for open world RPG

Playground Games, the studio behind the Forza Horizon games, has recruited developers who worked on GTA V, Metal Gear Solid and Hellblade to create an open-world RPG. A second studio with two hundred employees is being set up for this purpose.

According to gamesindustry.biz, Sean Eyestone is the new addition to the team. He comes from DICE, where he worked as a senior producer on Star Wars Battlefront II. Prior to that, he spent ten years at Kojima Productions on several Metal Gear Solid games, including open world Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. He is production director at the new Playground Games studio.

Earlier this year, Playground Games hired Will Kenedy as chief designer. He spent eight years at GTA developer Rockstar North as a level and game designer. In October, Juan Fernandez di Simon was appointed principal combat designer. He previously worked at Ninja Theory on the action game Hellblade.

It has been known since the beginning of this year that Playground Games is working on an open world game and that it is setting up a second studio for it. At the time, it was not yet clear what kind of game it would be; now according to gamesindustry.biz it is clear that it is an rpg.

Playground Games has focused on creating the Forza Horizon games for Microsoft in recent years. It is the first time that the studio makes a game without cars in the lead role. It has not yet been announced when the new game will be released.

Forza Horizon 3, the latest game from Playground Games